WHAT!! you didn't buy from me!!!!!

[sdexcalibur]

Is it like this everywhere. My LDS acts like I'm smacking them in the face if I buy something from any other place besides them. I know their a business and have to live to but hey I don't owe you a D@M thing.
I paid 350 for my cert. class. Plus I brought 3 other people with me. After I was done my Wife and 2 more people got certified. I like e-bay and sites like leisure pro and divers direct. I got a sweet deal on a scuba pro bc with air 2. The way they acted was like I spit in their face. Why would I spend hundreds more at their store when I picked it up for about half the cost of an air2.
I know you lds owners aren't going to like that but it's true. Beside for a while I was renting everything every other weekend which is $60.00x2 (me & wife). We never got a discount. Now all I need is air.
OK pheeew! I'm done venting. Can you tell I just got back from the shop. I getting my steel tank hydroed (right didn't buy it from them)

[O-ring]

sdexcalibur once bubbled...
Is it like this everywhere. My LDS acts like I'm smacking them in the face if I buy something from any other place besides them. I know their a business and have to live to but hey I don't owe you a D@M thing.
I paid 350 for my cert. class. Plus I brought 3 other people with me. After I was done my Wife and 2 more people got certified. I like e-bay and sites like leisure pro and divers direct. I got a sweet deal on a scuba pro bc with air 2. The way they acted was like I spit in their face. Why would I spend hundreds more at their store when I picked it up for about half the cost of an air2.
I know you lds owners aren't going to like that but it's true. Beside for a while I was renting everything every other weekend which is $60.00x2 (me & wife). We never got a discount. Now all I need is air.
OK pheeew! I'm done venting. Can you tell I just got back from the shop. I getting my steel tank hydroed (right didn't buy it from them)

Mine wouldn't let up about the drysuit for at least a month...they quoted me MSRP when I went in there and another shop cut me a better deal. I am all for loyalty when it comes to a few bucks, but a few hundred...nahhh. Gotta look out for #1 sometimes..

[Genesis]

with one local shop.

Basically, for me, "the talk" is something like this, and has come after a particularly stupid act on their part;

"Keep giving me a hard time and all you do is cost yourself more sales. You've made a lot of money off me. I can be pushed far enough to buy my own compressor, and might anyway even if its not a matter of spite, but if you DO get me upset you can bet I'll be buying it sooner rather than later, and WILL go out of my way not to spend money here.

Your choice. Either you can have a customer for some things, or you can have a customer for nothing. I won't bother even asking about pricing on things that you tell me are price-controlled, because I know you can't compete. That is a choice you made, and its one you have to live with - at least with this customer.

Until and unless you can compete, there's no reason to argue with you about those items. I will buy them online or from private parties. If your policies change, please do let me know, so that I can give you a fair shot at the business. If I ask you for a price on something, make it your best shot, because I don't believe in haggling - I will already know what I'm willing to pay, and what I can get it for elsewhere - including online.

You get one shot per purchase. If you have to order it, or if you can't compete on the total package, then you're no different than the Leisurepros and the DiveInns from my perspective. You offer no convenience advantage and you definitely don't offer me a price savings. Since that's all you have to sell when the product is the same, you've got a problem in those situations.

I'm not in your store to make sure you exist tomorrow, because I don't need you. In fact, you need me and others like me - and I'm fully aware of it. I shop here becuase I like to. The day I stop enjoying it is the day you'll see the back of my head for the last time. It really is that simple; we can either be friendly and there's something in it for you as well as me, or not - I won't suffer in either event."

So far, its been ok. Some shops don't like that point of view, and that's ok. They need my money - I don't need them for anything. Anything they want to sell me I can buy elsewhere, or put together what I need to procure it for myself. I dive often enough that even the "big stuff" - like a compressor - isn't beyond the economic analysis working out ok for me over a couple of years.

I'm exactly the kind of customer that these shops should take great care in not running off. A guy who comes in pretty regularly during the "low season", and who's name is a significant percentage of the total signatures in the Nitrox fill log book for the last two months, isn't a guy you want to decide that he doesn't like you all that much.

But heh - its their choice.

And mine.

[Northeastwrecks]

Boy, did they actually sit through that. I would have walked off after the first paragraph to help a paying customer. Of course, I would have made sure that the door latched securely behind you on the way out.


SDEXCALIBUR, its too bad that your shop didn't see the light. At a minimum, my LDS will credit the entire cost of your OW against a substantial equipment order. I don't know what they would have done in addition to that for bringing in more students.

[Genesis]

and it would have cost you four customers, not just one.

The other three who dive with me most frequently (including one person who dives with me essentially all the time) would go in on the compressor with me in a heartbeat.

So let's see.... that's four. How many more times does that have to be multiplied before you have no customers left?

Hint: I am not beneath wearing a sandwich board on the sidewalk in front of your shop. I've done similar things before.

[Dryglove]

Genesis once bubbled...

Hint: I am not beneath wearing a sandwich board on the sidewalk in front of your shop. I've done similar things before.

For some reason i could totally see you doing this genesis Your quite a character

[Genesis]

it was on the floor of a trade show - as a T-shirt.

It definitely drew more than a bit of attention....

[Northeastwrecks]

Genesis once bubbled...
and it would have cost you four customers, not just one.

The other three who dive with me most frequently (including one person who dives with me essentially all the time) would go in on the compressor with me in a heartbeat.

So let's see.... that's four. How many more times does that have to be multiplied before you have no customers left?

Hint: I am not beneath wearing a sandwich board on the sidewalk in front of your shop. I've done similar things before.

And you must be so proud of yourself. Personally, I would send you a no trespass letter, then call the local PD if you took one step on private property. Of course, I would also consider whether it was worth my time to up the voltage by filing for a TRO based upon commercial defamation if I found even a scintilla of inaccuracy, then seeing how well you and your four friends held up over the course of a multi-day deposition (each). Personally, I'm willing to bet that you'd lose it after a couple of hours and give me everything I needed.

You could send the FTC a letter asking for me to be included in your crank file.

Four cranks are simply not worth the business. I'd rather concentrate on valued customers than cater to a crackpot with a persecution complex.

Now lets not hijack the thread. Be a nice boy and take your medicine.

[jbm]

Genesis once bubbled...
with one local shop.

Basically, for me, "the talk" is something like this, and has come after a particularly stupid act on their part;

"Keep giving me a hard time and all you do is cost yourself more sales. You've made a lot of money off me. I can be pushed far enough to buy my own compressor, and might anyway even if its not a matter of spite, but if you DO get me upset you can bet I'll be buying it sooner rather than later, and WILL go out of my way not to spend money here.

Your choice. Either you can have a customer for some things, or you can have a customer for nothing. I won't bother even asking about pricing on things that you tell me are price-controlled, because I know you can't compete. That is a choice you made, and its one you have to live with - at least with this customer.

Until and unless you can compete, there's no reason to argue with you about those items. I will buy them online or from private parties. If your policies change, please do let me know, so that I can give you a fair shot at the business. If I ask you for a price on something, make it your best shot, because I don't believe in haggling - I will already know what I'm willing to pay, and what I can get it for elsewhere - including online.

You get one shot per purchase. If you have to order it, or if you can't compete on the total package, then you're no different than the Leisurepros and the DiveInns from my perspective. You offer no convenience advantage and you definitely don't offer me a price savings. Since that's all you have to sell when the product is the same, you've got a problem in those situations.

I'm not in your store to make sure you exist tomorrow, because I don't need you. In fact, you need me and others like me - and I'm fully aware of it. I shop here becuase I like to. The day I stop enjoying it is the day you'll see the back of my head for the last time. It really is that simple; we can either be friendly and there's something in it for you as well as me, or not - I won't suffer in either event."

So far, its been ok. Some shops don't like that point of view, and that's ok. They need my money - I don't need them for anything. Anything they want to sell me I can buy elsewhere, or put together what I need to procure it for myself. I dive often enough that even the "big stuff" - like a compressor - isn't beyond the economic analysis working out ok for me over a couple of years.

I'm exactly the kind of customer that these shops should take great care in not running off. A guy who comes in pretty regularly during the "low season", and who's name is a significant percentage of the total signatures in the Nitrox fill log book for the last two months, isn't a guy you want to decide that he doesn't like you all that much.

But heh - its their choice.

And mine.

It's not often i sympathize with the retail sector but...in this case I must. You simply sound like you are not worth the effort.

[Genesis]

I had a so-called "vendor" try that kind of bullying tactic on me - exactly once.

I have a photocopy of a six-figure check, which I deposited and cashed, for my trouble.

I'd love to have another. You'd make my day with such a tactic.

It'd buy me a new boat.

I love people who think they can abuse the law in this kind of way. It makes my bank account (and toy budget) sing.

Have a nice day NE.